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Projects

Residencies & Commissions, Youth & Community Programs

Residencies & Commissions: In addition to our training seminars and workshops, CSV occasionally offers opportunities to work at the facility as a resident-artist or to produce commissioned work. We often link our residency and commissioning programs to local exhibitions or media art festivals.

Resident and commissioned artists are generally selected by peer assessment committees in open competitions. Further information is available on our website. We welcome new opportunities to collaborate with festivals and other exhibition/art organizations. Contact us if you are interested in discussing a partnership.

Youth & Community Programs: CSV offers a wide range of support to youth groups and community organizations interested in engaging in a media art or film production program. We specialize in curriculum development, technical support, and facilitator training/mentorship. With our expertise in professional digital cinema equipment and arts education we work with our partner organizations to create innovative community-based programming.

CSV accepts ongoing submissions from interested groups to work with us as youth and community partners. We are always eager to build new relationships and develop new programs, and we would love to work with you and support your community-based media art work.

youth projects

Animating Democracy is an 8 week video workshop for youth ages 16-22 from Scarborough Arts, in partnership with Charles Street Video. The students learn practical production and post production skills while tackling a social issue that they see in their community.

CSV is proud to be partnering with Reel Asian on their annual youth video production program.World Premiere: Monday November 13, 2017 @ 9:00 pm | TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 3
The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival’s Unsung Voices: Youth Video Production Workshop provides young Asian Canadians with a keen interest in film the necessary skills to express themselves as artists, learn from professionals in the field, and to produce a distinctly Asian Canadian story.
Charles Street Video is proud to be partnering on this annual program, providing equipment, workshop space, and post-production resources.
We look forward to seeing these fearless first-time filmmakers' debut on the big screen!
SIKHS OF ANARCHY
Amy Thind • Canada • 07:00 • Punjabi and English
This short documentary follows the Sikh Motorcycle Club’s fight to change helmet laws in Ontario to allow them to wear their turbans.
Amy Thind is an arts administrator specializing in fundraising and development, who hopes to continue making documentaries that explore topics of cultural identity.
PARENTAL GUIDANCE
Kashaf Mansoor • Canada • 08:00 • English and Urdu
An exasperated soon to be college student, Zoya struggles to confess a secret that goes against her overbearing parents wishes, on the longest car trip of their lives.
Growing up on a steady diet of Hindi cinema, Kashaf Mansoor is in awe of the universe films can create. As a Pakistani Canadian filmmaker, she hopes to share stories that represent a different and honest view of the world.
FROM JUMPING TO LEAPING
Natalie Torres • Canada • 05:00 • English
An abstract piece about the emotions felt when taking a risk. It follows two parallel stories, one changing career paths from a stable and secure job to an artistic and unpredictable one and the other of one on the brink of coming out as transgender.
Natalie Torres studied Cinema and Media at York University in 2014. Mainly studying theory and history, she eventually found a love for editing which resulted in deciding to freelance edit on the side. Since then, that love grew into a passion to excel more to not only editing but to create in all aspects of cinema and filmmaking.
BOLLYSINGH
Prajjwal Rajawat • Canada • 08:40• English
A 17 year old struggles between accepting his cultural identity or changing it to fit conventional ideas of beauty.
Prajjwal Rajawat attended York University for 2 years, majoring in Space Science before he decided to pursue a career in film. He wishes to one day be able to travel the world while making films along the way.
FUSION
Sonia Pang • Canada • 10:00 • English
Fusion is a micro-documentary featuring two of the iconic figures in the fusion food scene in Toronto: Susur Lee, the pioneer of fusion cuisine in Toronto and often known as the Father of Fusion. He is also the owner of Lee Restaurant, Fring’s, Luckee and Lee Kitchen; Eric Chong, the winner of the first Canada’s MasterChef. He is also the co-owner of R&D Restaurant, which is known for innovative modern Chinese cooking. The film explores both chefs’ personal stories, as well as them and their peers’ opinions on fusion cuisine in Toronto.
Sonia Pang is a graduate of the University of Toronto who is passionate about film and technology. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling and learning about different cultures. Unsung Voices will be her first film debut exploring concepts of food culture, identity, and community in the multicultural Toronto.
FOOTPRINTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Teresa Auntora Gomes • Canada • 10:00 • English
In July 2017, Bangladeshi-Canadian activists organized a rally in Toronto to protest against the construction of a coal power plant next to the Sundarbans, Bangladesh’s mangrove forest and one of the natural wonders in the world. Through various mediums and personal narratives, five activists express what motivates them to advocate for the protection of a physical environment they no longer reside in. Ultimately, this documentary follows the footprints of a unique diaspora, in which a sense of home is uncovered.
Teresa Auntora Gomes is a womyn of colour with Bangladeshi roots and recent graduate from the University of Toronto. She hopes to create films that exhibit intersections of social justice issues and personal narratives.
MICHAEL
Warren Kang • Canada • 09:40 • English
A desultory young man struggles to accept his addiction and is forced to reflect on his desires and self-identity .
Warren Kang is an emerging multidisciplinary artist and student of Theatre & Film Studies at McMaster University. His work encompasses the fields of performance, production design and management, photography, and video. He is especially intrigued by visceral, experimental and postmodernist work. He would love to continue developing projects that engage audiences in reflecting upon themselves and society.

The POV 3rd Street training program is an intensive 20-week program open to marginalized young adults aged 18-25 who desire to work in media but do not have the experience, financial capability, and social connections to pursue their career.

The Scarborough Project: You Are HereThe Scarborough Project: You Are Here is an arts-education project for newcomer, first generation and Indigenous youth, living in Kingston-Galloway. Over a period of 10 weeks, participants aged 14-16 will learn the Indigenous history of Scarborough and be introduced to still and moving image production, editing, and narrative writing; explore themes of location and displacement; community-building; and identities. Participants will create arts pieces with the support of artist mentors.

Fearless first time filmmakers make their return in the 2015 edition of Unsung Voices.
Ayano In The Forest
Ammar Keshodia* | Canada 2015 | 8:00
A young woman awakens in the forest, confronted by a stranger. Can he help her find out how she got there?
Originally from Pakistan, Ammar Keshodia is a Political Science graduate from the University of Toronto.
Teaching Taboo: Sex Ed and the South Asian Diaspora
Lakshya Dhungana* | Canada 2015 | 10:00
In 2015, Ontario proposed changes to its sex education curriculum for the first time in years. Teaching Taboo looks at the issue from inside the South Asian community.
Lakshya Dhungana graduated from the International Development Studies Program at U of T, and is involved with the Toronto Nepali Film Festival.
Ntervw
Melissa Tran* | Canada 2015 | 6:00
Sometimes life feels like all preparation and no action, but what would that actually look like?
Melissa Tran is a fourth year high school student in Toronto.
Door To Door
Bruce Ravichandran* | Canada 2015 9:00
The sort-of true-life story of two bumbling door-to-door sales men who must train a pair of newbies, or else lose their jobs.
Bruce Ravichandran was named after Bruce Lee and loves action movies.
Adult Children
Camille Bertrand-Morel*, Veronica Tsui*, Natalie Yiu* | Canada 2015 | 3:00
A daughter’s relationship with her father is strained when he can’t let go of work in this short animated film.
Camille Bertrand-Morel, Veronica Tsui, and Natalie Yiu are students at Seneca College, currently in their first and second years.
I’m Afraid Of You Leaving
Iris Ni* | Canada 2015 | 10:00
Two cousins left alone in a Chi- nese megacity deal with their feelings of abandonment.
Iris Ni is a graduate of University of Windsor and writes for stage and online.
“Cindy”
Anthony Tran* | Canada 2015 | 2:00
A young queer Asian Canadian woman navigates her multiple identities in this delightful stop-motion animation.
Anthony Tran is a Toronto-based young queer artist and muse to the Gods.
Liquid Beings
Seden Lai* | Canada 2015 | 9:00
He wakes up. He doesn’t know who He is. He creates Her. But who created Them?
Seden Lai is a recent graduate of OCAD, and is interested in understanding the world through spaces, objects, sounds, and experiences.

These short documentaries were produced through SkyWorks Charitable Foundation's Real Change Boys Filmmaking Project 2013/2014.
Performing Masculinity from Skyworks on Vimeo.
BOXED IN from Skyworks on Vimeo.
Man in the Middle from Skyworks on Vimeo.
THATS MY BOY from Skyworks on Vimeo.
SOUL MODEL from Skyworks on Vimeo.

A Reel Asian/CSV Collaborative Educational ProgramThe Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival’s UNSUNG VOICES YOUTH VIDEO PRODUCTION WORKSHOP will provide young Asian Canadians with a keen interest in film the necessary skills to express themselves as artists, learn from professionals in the field, and to produce a distinctly Asian Canadian story. Youth participants, who may otherwise not have the opportunity to engage in filmmaking, will be provided the means for producing their own 8-minute (maximum), Asian Canadian video in any genre (fiction, documentary, experimental). Each work will be produced with fellow workshop participants and within the community. The entire video collection will receive a worldwide premiere at the 18th Annual Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival in November 2014 and may be considered for additional national and international screenings. The programme undertaken in collaboration with Charles Street Video.

Once again this year CSV is proud to be offering support in the form of equipment, facilitation, and curriculum development to the Toronto District School Board Media Art Co-op.
The TDSB Arts Department, in collaboration with the Aboriginal Education Centre, presented the Arts Co-op performance Eighth Fire Journeys, a collection of original performance pieces and films by secondary students from across the TDSB. The program aims to build cross-cultural understanding through active, intensive engagement in drama, dance, and media. A company of 23 students of diverse backgrounds worked with professional artists and artist-educators. The goal is to empower these youth, and provide them with artistic tools, practices, and techniques, as well as a platform that honours and gives voice to their stories
These works, which toured to over 3,500 TDSB students, invited students to think and feel deeply about issues of identity and cross-cultural understanding. First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives were woven into the fabric of these works.
The Eighth Fire, is an Ojibway prophecy which foretells a time when society will reach a crossroads. In order for humankind to move forward in positive ways, diverse peoples from around the world must come together to create positive social and environmental change.
The program culminated in a matinee and evening performance at Young People’s Theatre on June 11, 2013.

Unsung Voices - Youth Summer Video Production Workshop
The 16th Annual Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival proudly presents Unsung Voices, the festival's first suite of short films by six young Asian-Canadian filmmakers with little-to-no formal filmmaking experience. Light-hearted romance, dark thrills, psychological drama, documentary and experimental nuances are all represented in this daring collection of work.
Reel Asian's inaugural Youth Summer Video Production Workshop, which launched summer 2012, brought together youth who teemed with rich, creative stories but had not yet explored their passion for making films. Through mentorship by industry professionals, hands-on exercises and a crash-course-like production schedule, Unsung Voices is the product of their successful creative expression, teamwork and development as leaders, aspects of which were carefully honed during the Workshop.
WORKSHOP FACILITATOR: Tony Lau
WORKSHOP MENTORS: Gloria Kim (Directing), Monica Mak (Production Management), Sacha Nastili (Sound Composition), Iris Ng (Cinematography), Albert Shin (Editing), Nathalie Younglai (Writing)
Unsung Voices is a collaboration between the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival Youth Summer Video Production Workshop and Charles Street Video with support from Global Toronto and the Ontario Arts Council. For more information about Reel Asian's Educational Programmes, please visit reelasian.com.

Youth Camera Action! is an environmental video production program specifically designed for youth between the ages of 13 – 18 years. This action packed two-week summer program is open to youth across the Greater Toronto Area and provides a unique and creative opportunity to learn about the environment, get practical, hands-on video-making experience and create their own short environmental video projects in all genres. Completed projects premiere as part of the Green Sprouts Youth Filmmakers Showcase at the Planet in Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival each fall. YCA films have also gone on to enjoy screenings at other youth film festivals throughout North America and have been broadcast on national television!

Working with the TDSB Arts Department, the Theatre Centre, and the Aboriginal Education Centre, CSV was pleased to support this years media arts coop.
Students created collective pieces that were screened at The Theatre Centre's Free Fall Festival, and individual pieces that toured to schools across the TDSB with a cluminating performance for 400 people at Young People's Theatre.

These short documentaries were directed, shot and edited by participants in SkyWorks Charitable Foundation's "Real Change Girls Filmmaking Project", in partnership with Plan Canada's Because I am a Girl Speakers Bureau.
BEAUTY BITES from Skyworks on Vimeo.
GIRLS BETWEEN TWO WORLDS from Skyworks on Vimeo.
BOYS WILL BE BOYS from Skyworks on Vimeo.
wasichana from Skyworks on Vimeo.

Youth Camera Action! is an environmental video production program specifically designed for youth between the ages of 13 – 18 years. This action packed two-week summer program is open to youth across the Greater Toronto Area and provides a unique and creative opportunity to learn about the environment, get practical, hands-on video-making experience and create their own short environmental video projects in all genres. Completed projects premiere as part of the Green Sprouts Youth Filmmakers Showcase at the Planet in Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival each fall. YCA films have also gone on to enjoy screenings at other youth film festivals throughout North America and have been broadcast on national television!

An LGBTQ Youth Video Dialogue ProjectWith assistance from Canada Council for the Arts, Charles Street Video was able to undertake a 10-week video dialogue project with three groups of youth across Toronto. Queer Connections was an innovative project model in which three groups of LGBTQ youth from three different neighbourhoods in Toronto (Etobicoke, Scarborough, and North York) used video to have an online conversation. Meeting twice a week for 10 weeks, each group created 7 short films, proceedng from pre-production to the internet in approx. 5 hours. This process resulted in 21 short films. At the beginning of the project each group of youth made a video exploring the theme of identity. These are the first videos in each of the three ‘video streams’. The videos were then posted online and viewed by one of the other groups, who in turn created a response based on their reaction to the content and ideas proposed by their peers. Each video is not only a response to the video before it, but a catalyst to the video that comes after it! The videos document the exploration of queer identity through drawings, acting, puppetry, dance, history, music, storytelling, playfulness, and personal narrative. The video format enabled these expressive forms to come alive through cinematic language to build a dialogue that is both rich and deep.

Success Beyond Limits
Success Beyond Limits is a youth mentorship and empowerment program that supports youth in Toronto's Jane and Finch community. SBL runs a summer camp to prepare youth for a successful transition into high school. SBL also runs after-school programs throughout the school year at Westview Centennial Secondary School. This video about Success Beyond Limits was directed, shot, and edited by youth from SBL, trained through SkyWorks Charitable Foundation's Real Change Youth Filmmaking Mentorship Program. The film was made with the support of the Toronto District School Board's Focus on Youth Toronto program.
Success Beyond Limits - Toronto from Skyworks on Vimeo.

Youth Camera Action! is an environmental video production program specifically designed for youth between the ages of 13 – 18 years. This action packed two-week summer program is open to youth across the Greater Toronto Area and provides a unique and creative opportunity to learn about the environment, get practical, hands-on video-making experience and create their own short environmental video projects in all genres. Completed projects premiere as part of the Green Sprouts Youth Filmmakers Showcase at the Planet in Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival each fall. YCA films have also gone on to enjoy screenings at other youth film festivals throughout North America and have been broadcast on national television!

YMCA Youth Newcomer Video Projectan innovative video program that provides knowledge and training in the art of video production for newcomer youth to share stories of immigration and settlement in Canada on film.

Newcomer Youth Film Project: January - March 2009Flicks Newcomer Youth Project is the first youth initiative of the YMCA. The project is for newcomer youth and enables participants to tell their stories and share their experiences immigrating and settling into Canada.

Since 1998, with the support of Charles Street Video, Inside Out initiates the Queer Youth Digital Video Project to provide opportunities for youth to learn video production and post-production in a supportive atmosphere.

Indie filmmakers David "Sudz" Sutherland and Jennifer Holness created Through Our Eyes (TOE), an exciting, new arts education program. This innovative project engaged 25 students, some of whom fall into the 'at-risk' category, and introduced them to the film/ video media.

7th Generation Image MakersAs part of the Tauqsiijiit Collective 2005-06, The Seventh Generation Image Makers (Native Child and Family Services of Toronto) hired a group of five youth to work with video and experience a collaborative arts based experience in two parts. These youth named themselves United Aboriginal Productions.

Youth Documentary ProjectThe YDocs project is a program where youth get the opportunity to work alongside filmmakers, their peers, as well as a mentor to create a documentary on a social issue they feel passionately about.